This invention relates generally to banking and more particularly to unmanned banking centers for providing services to patrons normally provided from manned conventional bank branches.
The costs of establishing a typical branch office of a bank or a credit union are quite high. In addition to the building costs, and the equipment costs, there are the costs attendant with the staffing of the branch by tellers, and the like. Thus, the number of branches that a financial institution makes available is frequently limited to substantially less than the number which may be required to adequately service the community and the community suffers from the lack of adequate banking facilities. This problem is exacerbated where the community to be serviced is one having a high crime rate, due to the considerations of safety and security for the personnel of the branch.
While the use of automated teller machines (ATMs) has alleviated the problem somewhat by providing the public with means to gain access to one's bank to make deposits and withdraws from a machine which can be located anywhere, the need never the less exists for more than the service provided by such machines. Loans, for example, cannot be made via an ATM machine.
Examples of prior art systems or equipment for providing some unmanned banking services, e.g., deposits, withdrawals, check cashing, etc., are found in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 3,876,864 (Clark et al.), 4,109,238 (Creekmore), and 4,580,040 (Granzow et al.),
Notwithstanding the above, a need presently exists for an integrated unmanned banking center which can be located anywhere to provide the typical banking or other financial services to patrons of the center, yet without requiring any staff at the center.